Despair's Game
by Ptroxsora
Summary: Mukuro Ikusaba was killed, she knew that much. But if she was dead, why was she in Shibuya, participating in what was called the Reaper's Game? And what exactly do they mean by, "getting a second chance"? WARNING: MAJOR DR1 SPOILERS!
1. Prologue

Prologue

Mukuro Ikusaba couldn't believe it. She was killed by her own sister. Things had started out fairly well. Mukuro posed as her sister, the famous model Junko Enoshima, gaining the trust of the students at Hope's Peak. She was supposed to attack Monobear, the way that Junko would keep control over the students, and then Junko would send her to the lower parts of Hope's Peak. Mukuro would then kill someone at the school, causing an investigation to begin. With the real culprit gone, the student's would fail the trial and all be executed.

But something went wrong. Things were going just as the two had planned, with "Junko" stepping on Monobear. But then things started to go south for Mukuro.

"_Gyu...!" Monobear moaned as Mukuro's foot collided with his body._

"_There! Are you satisfied now?" Mukuro snapped in fake rage._

"_I should ask you the same thing," Monobear replied. A sick grin spread across the bears face._

"_Huh?" Mukuro said, pretending that she had no idea what the headmaster was talking about._

"_Violence against the headmaster is forbidden. It's against the school rules... I have no choice but invoking my saving magic!" Monobear shouted. Mukuro faltered. This wasn't supposed to be happening. Monobear was supposed to banish her from Hope's Peak, or something along the lines of that. "Save me! Gungnir the Spear!"  
Mukuro's eyes widened. She should've known that Junko would do this. Her sister would do anything for the sake of despair, even kill Mukuro._

_A spear flew into Mukuro, stabbing her in the stomach. Soon there were thirteen spears stabbed into her. Mukuro couldn't stop a smile from spreading across her face. The despair was incredible. She slowly looked down at the spears._

"_...Huh...? What...? Isn't... that... strange? Why... was... I...?" Mukuro struggled to spit out. What she was trying to do was ask her sister why she had attacked her. Why Junko threw away the plan._

_It's rather fitting, though. A member of Fenrir killed by the spears of Gungnir. I guess this makes me the first execution_, Mukuro thought.

She opened her eyes up wide one last time before collapsing to the ground.

And then, Mukuro didn't feel anything. Not hope, not even despair. She felt nothing. She _was_ nothing.

**Hi guys. Guess who's working on new ideas when she should be working on ****_CLM_****? Me! So, this is an idea I've had for a while, and I finally decided to stop being lazy and actually work on it. I would like to thank the truly awesome Makoto Naegi for helping me edit this chapter and the next one and I would love to hear what you guys think!**


	2. Chapter 1: Pacts

1 PACTS

Mukuro woke up in the middle of a crowded street. Huge skyscrapers towered over her.

_What happened? Where I am I?_ Mukuro wondered. People surged past her as if she wasn't even there. She was no longer dressed to look like her sister, the blonde wig and outfit was gone and she had her usual short black hair and brown girl's school uniform. The makeup on her hand was removed and the black Fenrir tattoo stood out against her pale white skin.

_That's right. I was at Hope's Peak. And... and Junko killed me. My little sister killed me_, Mukuro remembered. _But if I'm dead, what am I doing here? Is this heaven? Huh, after everything I've done, I thought I would be in Hell._

Deciding to ask someone where she was, Mukuro reached out for someone.

"Excuse me, do you-" she started but stopped the second the person she was talking to walked right through her. It was a weird sensation, like having a bucket of cold water thrown over you.

Mukuro looked down. What was going on? Why was everyone walking through her?

Sighing, Mukuro put her hands in her uniform pockets. She felt her right hand brush gently against a small pin in the pocket. She pulled the pin out, looking over it. The pin was black and had a slightly skull shaped white insignia in the middle. She hesitantly tossed the pin into the air and suddenly voices flew through the air, assaulting the SHSL Soldier's ears.

_Ugh, where's Suzuki-kun? I totally asked him to be here by ten, and it's what, noon now? He owes me a rematch at DDR!_ one voice said.

_Geez, I know it's weird that he keeps seeing people disappear once they leave stores and whatnot, but that doesn't mean they're _ghosts. _This guy needs to get a grip_! another voice said. Mukuro's eyes widened in shock.

"What was that?" she asked as the voices stopped. She looked over the small black pin, turning it over in her hands. _Just what is this thing?_

Curious as to what exactly happened, Mukuro flipped the pin into the air. Sounds once again assaulted her. She clapped her hands over her hands to try to decrease the noise, but it only made things louder.

_Ugh, what a drag. I wanna go home._

_Geez, what is taking him so freaking long?_

_That guy is _way _out if his league._

_Man, that chick is hot!_

_I knew I should've picked that up._

_Where's that ramen place again?_

_Omigosh! I'm totally late for that karaoke session with Itou-chan today!_

Mukuro stumbled, nearly collapsing to the concrete ground. She dropped the pin in shock.

"Am I hearing people's thoughts?" Mukuro wondered aloud. She leaned down, picking up the small, black pin.

Beep, beep!

Blinking, Mukuro heard the familiar sound of her phone ringing. She stared down at her left pocket, the source of the ringing phone. She pulled the slim phone out of her pocket, taking a look at the phone. She saw that a text had been sent to her and she quickly took a look at the message.

_Reach 104. You have 60 minutes. Fail, and face erasure. -The Reapers_

Mukuro blankly stared at her phone for a second, puzzled by the text. "104? Isn't that in Shibuya? Is that where I am?" she asked. "If I am in Shibuya, why would I need an hour to- AUGH!" Her words were cut off by a sharp stinging pain on her right palm. She grasped her wrist in agony, her breathing labored for a few seconds after the burning sensation ended.

_Tick. Tick. Tick._

The sound of a clock reached Mukuro's ears, loud even against the noise of the crowded street. There was only one way that a clock would be that loud, Mukuro determined. She slowly looked down at her right palm to see that someone, or something, had engraved the numbers 59:49 into it in bright red font. No, it was 59:48. Now it was 59:47. Mukuro's eyes widened in shock. It was a timer. She had a timer on her hand.

A sudden, whirring and synthetic sound reached her ears. Mukuro quickly looked upward to see strange, graffiti-like symbols floating in the air. The symbols slowly began to transform into weird, frog-like monsters. Eyes widening, Mukuro called out to the other people. No one responded to her yells, it was as if no one else saw them, or Mukuro. _What's going on?_ Mukuro wondered. _Why aren't these people listening, or at least running?_

Although Mukuro would've loved to stick around and fight off the frog creatures, she didn't have any weapons. There was no chance she would be able to fight those things off with her bare hands. Knowing that there was nothing she could do, Mukuro sped off, running from the frogs. She made it to another, less crowded area with a large statue of a dog. Remembering seeing the statue before when she did a history project, Mukuro remembered that the statue was called Hachiko.

Suddenly, a scream broke through the air and Mukuro whirled in the direction of the scream. A girl that was about her age with long brown hair and bright blue eyes. One of the frogs was desperately biting onto her arm and another was slicing at her right leg, slashing up her jean's leg. The girl was clearly panicking, wildly looking around for someone to help her.

Sighing, Mukuro ran for the girl, tackling her and landing them both by the statue of Hachiko. The two frogs were flung off the girl and back into the pack of other frogs that had followed Mukuro.

Mukuro rose from the ground, pulling the other girl off the ground. The girl quickly brushed her jeans off and gave Mukuro a quick smile. "Are you okay?" Mukuro asked.

"Forge a pact with me!" the girl demanded, ignoring Mukuro's question.

"What?"

"Do you want to be erased?" the girl asked impatiently. "If we forge a pact, we can fight off the Noise!"

"Noise?" Mukuro asked.

"See those things?" the girl said quickly, pointing at the quickly advancing frogs. "Those are Noise. Now could you just make a pact with me?"

"Alright, alright!" Mukuro shouted. "I accept!"

The girl grabbed Mukuro's hand, and a burst of white light shot from where their hands connected. The girl then spun around to face the Noise, letting loose a stream of fire that trailed along the ground, consuming the frogs. The frogs exploded into what Mukuro thought looked suspiciously like static on a television without signal. The girl turned back to face Mukuro, sighing in relief.

"Whew, I'm glad that's over," she said.

"What just happened?" Mukuro asked, surprised that fire had appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

"We made a pact," the girl replied simply, as if that explained everything.

"Well I get that. But what was that fire?" Mukuro asked.

"Oh, the fire?" the girl said. She withdrew a red pin from her pocket and a flame insignia was printed on the pin. "This is a pin. With it, you can do certain things, this one let's me kinda manipulate fire. I can just picture it going somewhere and things will catch fire."

"And where exactly did you get that?" Mukuro asked. As far as she remembered, there were no pins that let you set things on fire at the shops in Tokyo that Junko had dragged Mukuro to.

"Didn't they give you one at the orientation?" the girl asked, puzzled.

"Not that I know of," Mukuro replied. The girl frowned.

"Well, I can't have a defenseless partner. We wouldn't last for two days if I'm to only one who could fight. I guess you could have this pin, I don't really think I would be able to use it," the girl said, pulling a grey pin with a pistol on it out of her pocket. Mukuro took the pin, gently rubbing its surface. She flipped the pin into the air, but it wasn't a pin that came down. It was a pistol, a very good one at that.

"Wow, that's awesome!" the girl exclaimed. "Oh yeah. I don't think that I've introduced myself yet. My name is Avaron Saikou."

"Uh, nice to meet you, Saikou-san. I'm Mukuro Ikusaba," Mukuro replied. Saikou gave Mukuro a quick smile.

"Mukuro Ikusaba. That's a pretty cool name," she commented. "But we have to get to 104 now."

"Wait, how do you know about that?" Mukuro asked.

"Easy," Saikou replied. "It was in the mission mail. Besides, from what I've gathered the first day is always about finding someone and making a pact."

"Mission? Pact? What's going on?" Mukuro echoed.

Saikou sighed and grabbed Mukuro's arm. "I'll explain later. Just come on; we're on a time limit. Look at your hand if you don't believe me."

Mukuro followed the brunette. She knew precisely what Saikou was referencing when she told the soldier to look at her hand. The timer must have been the time limit that she was talking about. Unable to resist taking a look at her hand, Mukuro looked down at her palm, seeing that the timer was ticking down slowly. 20:47. 20:46. 20:45. Both girls remained absolutely silent until the made it to a large building just north of the place where Mukuro had woken up. Once there, Mukuro felt a numbing sensation on the hand with the timer. Saikou seemed to had noticed too and displayed her own hand. "Timer's gone. Mission complete."

"Huh, that was pretty easy for a mission," Mukuro commented.

"Well, it should have been," Saikou replied. "The point of day one in the game is to find a partner, make a pact-without being erased by the Noise- and make it to 104, which is where we're at now. If you can't do that, then you'll be erased."

"Great, so we're in a game?" Mukuro groaned. "I don't remember signing up for any of this."

Saikou sighed. "Welcome to the Underground. You're invisible, while you can see everyone else, nobody could see. You're stuck in an alternate Shibuya, playing the Reaper's Game for seven days with no way out of it but to win."

"I don't have time for this!" Mukuro snapped. "I need to figure something out right now!"

"I know," Saikou said with a sigh. "You remember dying, right?"

"How... how did you know about that?" Mukuro asked, slightly shocked by the girl's knowledge on her death.

Saikou rolled her eyes. "Everyone in the Reaper's Game is dead. We all were brought here for a second chance. We need to survive this thing to get our second chance."

So she was dead. And Junko had killed her. "Well, we finished the mission," Mukuro sighed. "Now what should we do?"

"We could wait for the next mission, or we could go somewhere fun," Saikou replied with a slight smirk.

"Alright," Mukuro agreed. The two then turned off to a different direction, Saikou leading the way.

"We made it!" a cheerful- and very familiar- girl's voice shouted. Mukuro stopped dead in her tracks, whirling around to face voice. The source of the voice was a girl with blue hair and a guy with bright red hair was running along side her.

"Maizono-san? Kuwata-kun?" Mukuro gasped. The blue haired girl looked up, smiling at Mukuro.

"Hey Mukuro-san!" Maizono shouted cheerfully, giving the soldier a quick hug. "You're in the game too?"

"Uh, yeah," Mukuro said.

"Who's your partner?" Kuwata asked.

"That would be me," Saikou replied walking up. "I'm Avaron Saikou."

"It's nice to meet you, Saikou-san! I'm Sayaka Maizono, and this is Leon Kuwata," Maizono greeted warmly.

"Maizono? Aren't you an idol?" Saikou asked, slightly cocking her head to the side.

"Uh, yes," Maizono replied. Mukuro could detect a slightly upset tone in the idol's voice. She clearly missed her friends in her idol group.

"That's really cool!" Saikou said with a cheerful smile. "So, Ikusaba and I were about to go to somewhere now that the mission is over, would you two like to come?"

"I guess so," Kuwata replied.

"Yeah, it would be fun!" Maizono replied cheerfully.

"Then let's go!" Saikou said, leading the SHSLs through the crowded streets of Shibuya. She would occasionally speak up, telling the others where they were. Saikou led them through the scramble crossing and past a pair of department stores. She briefly paused and smiled a bit in front of one of the stores; AMX Records, if Mukuro remembered correctly. _Maybe she likes music_, Mukuro thought as the brunette led them through a graffiti covered tunnel and a similarly decorated park. The whole way, Mukuro never spoke a word. Saikou, Maizono and Kuwata, however were rather talkative, speaking to each other about various other things ranging from sports to music. Mukuro was right about her belief that Saikou enjoyed music, she was much more talkative when the three began talking about music.

"Here we are," Saikou announced. "This is Cat Street."

Mukuro took a look around. There were several small cafés and furniture stores, as well as a clothing store near where they entered. Several people walked about, though compared to the scramble crossing, this place seemed rather bare.

"Kind of refreshing to be out of the crowd," Kuwata commented.

Saikou laughed quietly. "When you live in Shibuya, Cat Street is like a breathe of fresh air. Now come on, the place we're going to is just a little way from here."

The four entered a small coffee shop, where Mukuro spotted a man with dark hair and a goatee. He wore relatively normal clothes: a simple white shirt coupled with a black vest and black slacks. He was adjusting his black glasses as the four walked in, and waved cheerfully. "Hey there, Saikou! Cup of joe for the road?"

"Not today, Mr. Hanekoma," Saikou replied. "I've got three rookies for the game. This is Ikusaba, Kuwata and Maizono."

Saikou had pointed to each of them in turn, informing the tall man which person was which. Mr. Hanekoma looked Mukuro, Maizono and Kuwata. "You know I'm not exactly paid to teach you kids how to survive the game."

"Other people know about the game?" Kuwata asked, surprised.

"Of course," Mr. Hanekoma replied, smiling a bit. "We just don't exactly talk about it much here on the RG."

Saikou shook her head. "Anyway, I'm sure they've got some questions for you. I would've answered them myself, but you know that 20 Questions isn't exactly my favorite pastime."

Hanekoma laughed in response. "I know, I know. So, you three, what do you want to know?"

Then Maizono, Kuwata and Mukuro asked everything that had been plaguing their minds and learned some new vocabulary. The black and white pins that they all had were called "Player Pins", and were used to "scan" other people's thoughts. At first, the thought of it shocked Maizono, but when she remembered her first time using the Player Pin, she slowly began to get a better grasp on it. Saikou promised the three that she would help them get the hang of scanning later. The pin was also used to "imprint" messages into people in what he called the Real Ground's thoughts. When Kuwata brought up the pact, Hanekoma explained that everyone needed a partner for the game, and that without one, no one could survive the game.

"You have to trust your partner," he explained. "Whether they're a criminal or not, and even if you hate your partner you still have to trust them. Otherwise, you'll end up being erased. That's why the first mission is always to get to 104. You're chased by the Noise right off the bat, and you can't go to 104 because the wall there will keep you from moving forward."

"Wall?" Maizono inquired.

"Yeah, I was hoping that we would run into one on our way here," Saikou said, speaking up for once. It was almost strange to hear her speak, she had been silent for most of the conversation, idly sipping a cup of coffee that Hanekoma had fixed her while explaining the Reaper's Game.

"The Reapers that run this game setup walls from time to time to stop players from wandering off to certain areas," Hanekoma explained. "In your first mission, the wall between the scramble and 104 won't go down until you form a pact. Anyone who doesn't make a pact by the time that the timer stops will be erased. That or you'll end up being erased by the Noise before you even get the chance to make a pact."

"So you have to make a pact fast," Saikou added, taking a sip of her coffee. "In this thing, it's either open up or get picked off."

Just then, the bell over the shop's door jingled and a tall girl entered. "Sorry I'm late, Mr. H," she said. "I got held up a bit."

"Not a problem, E!" Hanekoma replied. "Saikou's already here."

Mukuro stared wide-eyed at the girl. She had nearly pink blonde hair kept in two large pig tails, and a familiar black and red outfit. Skeletal black wings protruded from the girl's back. Pale blue eyes glanced around the room, landing on the four players. "Oh good, you all made it. I was sure that you would."

The soldier, however, did not share this sentiment. Her eyes narrowed in suspicion and she glared at the girl. This was the same girl that had caused her so much trouble in her living life. This was the girl that killed her.

"Hello, sister. Did you miss me?" Junko Enoshima asked, smiling wickedly at her sister.

**I'm back! I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter, I know I enjoyed writing it! I would like to state that from now on, the chapters will sort of be in different character's point of view. One will be Mukuro's, the next will be her partners and it will repeat that way until the week ends. Once again, I would like to thank Makoto Naegi for editing this fic. And for all of you guests to fanfiction, feel free to leave a review! Reviews are my fuel, they're what keeps me going! Also, feel free to check out my other work, you can find it by going to me profile! Well, now that I'm done with that shameless self-advertising, this is Ptroxsora, signing out.**


	3. Chapter 2: Scanning

2 SCANNING

Saikou glanced at her partner, seeing the same anger that she herself felt in the other girl's eyes. Saikou had seen this girl before, last week. While most people only had seen the beautiful Junko Enoshima in magazines, Saikou had seen the girl in real life, in a dark Shibuya alleyway, the night that she died. Although Saikou hadn't forgiven the girl for killing her, she did trust her, She couldn't exactly say the same for her partner.

Struggling not to make a snide remark about the girl, Saikou clenched both fists, accidentally crushing the coffee cup between her hands.

"What are _you_ doing here?" Saikou bit out.

"Yeah, what are you doing here?" Ikusaba demanded.

"Oh, why are you so hostile, Mukuro-chan? Is that anyway to greet your sister?" Enoshima replied.

"_She's_ your sister?" Saikou snarled, glaring daggers at the model.

Ikusaba turned to face the brunette, a look of confusion growing on her face. "How do you know her?"

"She's the one who killed me in the first place," Saikou snapped.

"Really, is that all I am to you, Saikou-san? I thought we were partners," Enoshima said, sounding almost offended by Saikou's anger.

"Yeah, we were partners. We aren't any more," Saikou replied.

'_Would you like me to punch her?_' A silky girl's voice asked Saikou. The brunette gave her head a quick shake in response to the voice.

"Fine, be that way," Enoshima said, turning away from Saikou and facing Ikusaba. "Besides, I'm not here for you. I'm here for Mukuro."

"I hope that you don't intend on trying to use me again, because it is not going to happen," Mukuro said. Saikou noticed Enoshima wince a bit upon hearing the word "hope". Then again, she seemed to do that the week when they were partners too.

"Oh no, I would never do that to you, sister," Enoshima replied. "I just couldn't seem to resist all the despair of killing you. I'm sure you understand."

_Snot_, Saikou thought.

"Then what exactly do you want me for?" Ikusaba questioned.

"You're probably the most capable person for taking out all the Noise here. And if you fail to eliminate them, well, I guess that would just make me feel just a bit more despair," Enoshima replied, calm as ever.

"So let me take a wild guess," Saikou said. "You want us to die so you can feel this 'despair' that you're so obsessed with."

"Very good!" Enoshima said in mock delight. "That's _exactly_ what I need you two to do! Of course, Mukuro-chan is the only one who I really need to die. You really aren't nearly as important to me as she is."

Ikusaba gave Enoshima what appeared to be a death glare. For some reason, Saikou thought that the look didn't look too out of place on Ikusaba's face; the sentiment was rather powerful. "Then why are you getting Saikou-san and the others into this?" Mukuro questioned. "There's no sense in killing her too."

Saikou was taken by surprise by this comment. Ikusaba wasn't particularly experienced with the Reaper's Game, sure, but no one had ever been this thoughtful about her. Ikusaba hardly even _knew_ her. Either she was thoughtful… or she didn't Saikou getting in her way. And if Ikusaba thought that Saikou would be getting in her way.. well, this would be a very long week. However, Saikou had the feeling that Mukuro wasn't thinking of the latter of the previously mentioned reasons, she just didn't seem like the kind of person. _She sort of reminds me of that one kid that went to my middle school_, Saikou mused, _Only she doesn't put up that annoying 'tough guy' facade._

"You're in the UG," Mr. H reminded Ikusaba. "I'd bend the rules if I could, but I can't. Saikou-san's in this whether you like it or not. Besides, she's been in this thing before. She knows Shibuya and the game."

Saikou saw Mr. H's point. She'd been in the game last week and she definitely knew the basics of the game. Plus, Saikou had been born and raised in Shibuya. She knew it like the back of her hand.

"And since the rules still apply, you need a partner for this game, dearie," Enoshima continued. "You can't survive without your partner, and it would be so boring if you were erased right off the bat! And with her, you can complete missions and fight the Noise."

"We were worried that there wouldn't be any decent players this time around, luckily you and Saikou-san met," Mr. H said.

"So you're saying that we wouldn't be decent players?" Kuwata said, speaking up for the first time in a while.

"Well, you certainly aren't as good as Saikou-san. She actually has done this before, and she lived here when she was alive," Enoshima replied.

"You've done this before?" Maizono questioned, turning to face Saikou.

"Yeah, last week," Saikou replied, shrugging slightly as if her previous experiences in the game were nothing of importance. "But that really isn't important right now."

"She is right, you four need to prepare for the next missions," Enoshima said. "And I need to go bag a few players."

With that, the model left the cafe. Saikou stared off after her. She could already tell this was going to be a long week.

After a bit more of Mr. H answering Ikusaba, Maizono and Kuwata's questions, the four exited the cafe. Mr. H having informed Saikou that they had at least two hours to go until they would have to proceed with the game, Saikou determined that they would have enough time for her to teach the rookie players the basics of scanning.

"Why exactly do we need to do this?" Kuwata asked impatiently.

Saikou rolled her eyes and said, "You could either go deaf or insane if you would prefer not to get the hang of it."

After that, they all hastily agreed to get working on their scanning skills. Saikou led the three others to the center of Cat Street.

"Isn't someone going to see us and think that we're nuts?" Maizono questioned as if she was worried that one of her many fans would see her standing in the middle of a Shibuya Street, reading other people's minds.

"Only other players will see us," Saikou replied, shoving her hands into her blue sweatshirt pockets. "And I doubt that they'll think that we're crazy, they're probably trying this out too. When you're in the UG, you can see everything out there in the RG, but nothing there can see you. Think of it as being like one of those one-way windows they have at those glass buildings.

"But these pins scan thoughts, right?" Maizono inquired. "Does it scan everyone?"

"No, only people in the RG," Saikou explained. "If you have a Player Pin, then nobody can scan you. That means that you can't scan me. You also can't scan reapers or other game officials."

"How do you know that it doesn't work on reapers?" Ikusaba inquired.

"I tried before," Saikou replied, stiffly. "It just doesn't work."

"I guess that's all we need. So how exactly do we do this?" Kuwata asked.

Saikou pulled her own Player Pin out of her jean's pocket. "It'd probably be best for me to show you how to do it."

As the three watched, Saikou put some earbuds in, her pin still in her hand. A pulse swept through the air and she held her hands over where her ears were hidden by her wavy brown hair. For a few minutes, Saikou stood stock-still, eyes closed and her hands hovering just over her ears. The other players stared in awe at the brunette's concentration, before the silence was broken again. Saikou opened her eyes and took her earbuds out, putting them back in her hoodie pockets. "There. It's easy."

"When the pin worked for me I nearly went deaf," Ikusaba commented. "How can you stand all of that sound blaring in your ears?"

"Practice," Saikou replied simply. "One week of practice. Think of it like this; the people's thoughts are like channels on a radio station. You can tune into it with the Player Pin and hear what they are. If you aren't good at scanning you end up listening to everyone's thoughts at once. I'm sure that you know what kind of headache you'll get from that."

Maizono nodded in response, remembering what had happened earlier when she first used the pin. "I think I know what you're talking about."

"Are you guys ready to give it a try?" Saikou asked.

"Uh, yeah I guess so. But before we start, could you give us any tips?" Maizono asked.

"Keep your concentration, don't let anything in the outside world distract you," the brunette replied casually. "Don't panic and just relax. If it gets to be too much for you, don't be afraid to pull out. It's best to save your energy for actual missions."

Saikou looked over the other three. "Now, who wants to go first?"

The others remained silent until Kuwata finally volunteered with a sigh. He grabbed his Player Pin, carefully tossing it up into the air. After a few minutes of silence, Kuwata opened his eyes back up.

"Huh, that wasn't so bad," he commented. Next Ikusaba volunteered. She mimicked what Kuwata had done and closed her eyes in concentration. Saikou noticed her partner grit her teeth and clench her fist in frustration. After sometime, Ikusaba opened her eyes. She wordlessly cast a odd glance at Saikou before letting Maizono know it was her turn.

"If you'd like, I could go in at the same time," Saikou said upon noticing how nervous the blue haired girl was. Maizono nodded quickly and Saikou gave a slight grin to the other girl. She put her earbuds in and looked over at the other girl. "Ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," the idol replied, taking out her Player Pin. With that, Maizono flipped her Player Pin into the air, closing her eyes tight. Saikou also began scanning, quickly flicking through the thoughts of the people on Cat Street.

_The Prince updated his blog! I can't wait to go home and read it._

_I'm so jealous; my friend got a copy of Final Mix right when they sold out! Maybe he'll let me play it sometime…_

_Hmm, did I lock the door when I left the apartment? The more I think about, the more worried I get… maybe I should just go home and check. But it is a two-hour round trip…_

_My book is finally ready to publish! I just need to get someone to do the cover art, then I would be ready! But I'm not really sure how to get something published… Eh, I could just search it when I get home._

_Omigosh, I'm going to be late to our meeting at Hachiko! I shouldn't have spent so much time with Eri… I hope they won't be mad!_

_Crap! The whole world can see my- KRRSSHHHH!_

Saikou's eyes snapped open and she turned to Maizono. The idol's eyes were still closed tight and she looked to be in serious pain. Saikou frown and grabbed the other girl's arms.

"Maizono! Maizono! Snap out of it!" she shouted, shaking the other girl.

Maizono quickly opened her eyes, breathing heavily.

"What… what was that?" she asked in shock.

"The Noise," Saikou replied, getting into a defensive position. "I hope you three are ready to fight."

Six pulsating red Noise symbols erupted from the air, surrounding the four players. Ikusaba quickly called upon the pistol that Saikou had given her and Saikou could see from the corner of her eyes that Maizono had a microphone in her hands and Kuwata had a steel baseball bat.

Ikusaba fired off a shot at a frog Noise, quickly causing it to erupt into static. Maizono was loudly singing into her mic, blowing one Noise away and sending it crashing into a wall while Kuwata was slamming another Noise with his bat. Not wanting to be useless, Saikou pulled out one of her pins and a pink sphere of energy appeared in her hands. A car glowed in the same color before slamming into a frog noise, crushing the opposing creature.

One of the remaining two Noise made a leap for Maizono, but Kuwata caught it with his bat, strangling it with the bat while Maizono called upon her mic, hitting a high frequency that caused the defenseless frog Noise to burst into static like it's four other companions had.

Together, Saikou and Ikusaba took out the final Noise. Saikou surrounded it with a ring of fire and Ikusaba leapt into the air, fairing off a volley of white bullets into the Noise, easily demolishing it.

The world around the players brightened the second the final Noise was erased and the people resumed business as usual. None of the four were particularly out of breath, but they were all a bit surprised.

"Are you all okay?" Maizono asked, facing the others.

"Just a few frog Noise," Saikou replied. "They aren't so hard to deal with. What about you guys?"

Maizono quickly confirmed that she was fine as did Kuwata.

"I've fought worse," Ikusaba replied casually. "But where did they come from?"

"Yeah, I remember scanning and then a burst of static appeared out of nowhere," Maizono recalled.

"Noise won't attack unprovoked once you've formed a pact," Saikou explained. "But they will come through if you aren't too careful. There are still some Taboo noise on the loose though, and they don't exactly follow the same rules." She stretched her arms out a bit and took a deep breath. "Want to try again?"

Maizono shook her head in response. "We've only got a few minutes left for the day," she said, checking her slim pink phone. "I think by the time I'm ready and focused again the next mission will be up and running."

"Good point," Saikou said. She turned around and rubbed her shoulder casually. "Come on. We're going to be out of time soon so we might as well get ready for the next mission. We should be ready for whatever it is that day two throws at us, whether it's easy or not."

With that, Saikou led the others to the park. A foreboding feeling still hung over her and wouldn't leave, and Saikou was finding it harder and harder to ignore it as the moments passed by. Something was wrong… something was very, extremely wrong… and somehow she knew that the bad feeling had nothing to do with the Noise. _I just hope that I can find out what it is before it's used against me…_

'_Don't worry Saikou-sensei, I'm sure you'll figure it out eventually_,' the silky voice said in Saikou's head with a slight laugh.

**Hey guys! Did ya miss me? Sorry for the long wait, I've been really busy with school, and life and all that stuff. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and getting to see Saikou's point of view. Once again, a big thanks to Makoto Naegi for editing my work! And a huge thank you for all the reviews and favorites! It's nice to see some love for these two relatively unknown gems. On a completely different subject, I already know that people are going to be wondering why Mukuro doesn't seem to really be loving all the despair that's going on a round her. All I can say is that all will be explained... next chapter! Until then, this is Ptroxsora, signing out.**


	4. Chapter 3: Picking up the Pieces

3 PICKING UP THE PIECES

Mukuro yawned and stretched as she woke up. She was always a morning person, her times with Fenrir had made her that way. Glancing around, she saw that she was in some sort of concert area. She was sitting on a stage and she saw that Saikou had already woken up and was standing be the exit with a slightly annoyed look on her face. Her arms were crossed.

She frowned at the other girl. She remembered having scanned the other day and something strange had happened.

_Mukuro had closed her eyes beginning the scan. She had zoomed quickly through many people thoughts before finally landing on a pretty odd one._

Hello, Ikusaba-san. It's a pleasure to meet you, _the thought had been. It wasn't the fact that the person had seemed to know her that had confused Mukuro, it was the fact that the thought was coming from Saikou._

_Mukuro quickly pulled out of the scan after that. What had just happened?_

She had known that there was something odd about her partner from the second that the two met, but this was a bit more weird than Mukuro was expecting. She remembered that Saikou said that you couldn't scan other players, so how was Mukuro able to scan her partner. There just was something wrong with her. Mukuro resolved to ask Saikou about it later.

Saikou must have noticed Mukuro waking up as she turned to face the other girl. "About time you woke up," Saikou mumbled. "The mission hasn't come yet."

Subconsciously rubbing the palm of her hand and noticed that there was no burning sensation. "So what do we do now?"

"There isn't really much to do," Saikou replied, shoving her hands back into her sweatshirt's pocket. "For starters, we could try to get past that wall."

"What wall?" she asked, glancing over to where Saikou had gestured to. All she could see was a street outside of the room. "I don't see anything."

"Trust me," Saikou said. "There's a wall right there."

"All I see is the street outside," Mukuro calmly protested.

Saikou sighed. "Alright, alright. If you don't believe me, why don't you take a look for yourself?"

Mukuro rolled her eyes and began walking forwards. She was about to turn back and call out to Saikou and let her know that there was indeed to wall, when she slammed into something. Shocked, Mukuro stumbled back and tripped over her own feet, collapsing to the ground. She stared out at the world in front of her. A brief pattern of hexagons rippled through the air before fading, leaving the street looking as normal as it had before. "What the…"

"Told you," Saikou said, walking over to the soldier. "There's a wall. They do this all the time in the game."

"So there's an invisible wall," Mukuro grumbled, raising back to her feet. "Now what do we do?"

Saikou sighed. "We get rid of it," she said. "The problem is, there isn't a Reaper anywhere to be found. Usually they give us objectives to open the wall up, and once you reach them they'll take down the wall. Usually the objective is to clean up the Noise in the area, or something like that."

Mukuro eyed the place where the wall was with suspicion. "Can't we just break it down, or something?"

Saikou shook her head in response. "Only something insanely powerful would be able to. A psyche probably could, but those don't work outside of battle..." she paused thoughtfully for a second. "Well, psychokinesis works to an extent, but I doubt that would really be useful, if it was they wouldn't let us use it outside of battle."

"Have you tried anything on it yet?" Mukuro questioned.

The brunette once again shook her head. "No, I didn't bother. It didn't work last week, so why would it work this week?"

A familiar beeping sound reached their ears. Sighing, Saikou pulled her phone out her pocket and glanced over it. "Mission mail's here."

"What's it say?" Mukuro asked.

Saikou stared down at her phone. "'Defeat the king of the forest. You have 120 minutes. Fail, and face erasure.'"

On cue, the burning sensation returned as the timer burned itself back on to the two girls' hands. Both of them winced. "Timer's back," Mukuro muttered. "So, who's the king of the forest?"

Saikou bit her lip nervously. "I'm not really sure," she said, "it could mean a number of things. But none of that really matters unless we can get out of here."

"Should we try again with the wall?" Mukuro asked. Saikou gave a quick nod. She walked forward and all the way out into the relatively fresh air.

"Wall's gone," she announced, Mukuro followed her outside to the busy street. "Now we just have to figure out what we have to do."

"We've got two hours, right? That would give us plenty of time to figure out what to do," Mukuro pointed out.

"We could figure this all out over a bowl of ramen," Saikou suggested. "There's this great ramen place called Ramen Don nearby. We could go there."

Mukuro hesitantly nodded. "Are we allowed to go in?"

"Yeah, there's a Reaper decal on there, so it's UG-friendly," Saikou said.

The two headed further into the streets and going past a few shops. Along the way, Mukuro noticed Saikou pulling out a blank, white pin. "What's that?" the soldier asked.

"Oh, this?" Saikou said, slightly surprised that her partner had noticed the pin. "I found it last week. It's blank now, but when you're synced with your partner you can use it as a psych. I'm not really sure if anyone else has these, but they can be really helpful."

"Whoever made this thing sure went crazy with the whole partner thing, didn't they?" Mukuro commented. Saikou shot the other girl a slight grin.

"They sure did," she said with a slight laugh. "I doubt that we'll ever find out why."

"What's with syncing anyway?" Mukuro asked. "What happens when you sync?"  
"Some pretty cool things happen," Saikou said. "Enoshima and I took down at least a hundred Noise at once with this thing before."

Mukuro nodded, getting the main idea of what would happen. It was pretty cool, if you could take out that many enemies with one hit, then it had to be some powerful stuff. For some reason, Mukuro felt a bit bothered by Saikou teaming up with Junko. She didn't know why, it just didn't seem right.

"Hey, Ikusaba, we're here," Saikou said, pulling away the soldier from her thoughts, "this is Ramen Don. The food here is great; don't let the smell fool you."

Mukuro had to admit that it smelt awful in front of the little ramen shop. Seeing that Saikou wasn't bothered by it, Mukuro followed her partner into the building. The smell was even worse in there, but after a few minutes of adjusting to it, Mukuro was fine. Saikou took a seat at the bar; Mukuro quickly followed suit.

"Irasshai!" a voice shouted from inside the kitchen.

"Hi Mr. Doi," Saikou said. "How's business being going?"

A man with a white apron and blue headband appeared behind the counter. He gave Saikou a quick smile. "Ah, Saikou-san! It's been a while. Things have been going great here, we've been having plenty of customers! Ah… who's this?"

"Oh, this is Ikusaba," Saikou replied. "She's from out of town, so I thought I'd show her around. We've got some errands to run, but we squeezed in some time to stop here and get some ramen before we get going."

_She's a pretty good liar_, Mukuro noted. _If I hadn't known that we were in the middle of a mission, I would've believed her._

"Good to hear that you're doing alright," Mr. Doi said with a grin. "What'll you have this time?"

"I'll have a bowl of shoyu," Saikou replied. "What 'bout you, Ikusaba?"

Mukuro glanced up at the menu hung on the wall. "I'll have one of those too," she decided after a bit of consideration.

"Right," Mr. Doi said, heading back into the kitchen, "two orders of shoyu ramen, coming up!"

Once the friendly man was out of earshot, Mukuro leaned over to Saikou. "Are you sure that we should be here? Aren't we on a time limit?"

"Oh, don't worry. We've got more than enough time to figure out the mission," Saikou said with a small smile. "Besides, Mr. Doi is really-"

"Here you are!"

"...Fast."

Mukuro wasn't quite sure if what Saikou had said was true. Sure, figuring out the mission was great and all, but right now, the bowl of ramen was what had Mukuro's mind buzzing. The moment that the bowl was placed in front of her, Mukuro instinctually grabbed a pair of chopsticks and took a bite. To her surprise, the ramen was probably one of the best things that she had ever had, and the SHSL couldn't help but dig in. Next to her, Saikou was doing the same thing.

"So, who do you think the kind of the forest is?" Mukuro asked between bites of ramen.

"Dunno," Saikou replied. "We'll probably get a hint at some time though. That's usually how things go. We've been given two hours to figure out who it is, find him and erase him. Maybe we'll get a bit of leeway afterwards so we could meet up with Maizono and Kuwata at WildKat, or go shopping for pins."

Mukuro frowned a bit upon the mention of Kuwata and Maizono. Though it was good to see the two, she still felt a little bad about everything that happened to them, partially because it was her fault.

"So, why not we get to know each other a little better," Saikou suggested.

"Huh?" Mukuro asked sounding a bit confused.

"If we get to know each other better, we might be able to fight better," the brunette explained. "So what was your entry fee?"

"Entry fee?" Mukuro echoed in confusion.

"You don't even know about your entry fee? Man, weren't you paying any attention during orientation?" Saikou said. "An entry fee is the thing you had to give up to enter the game. It's always something really important to you, like mine was this old fob watch that my grandmother gave me."

Mukuro looked over the girl, trying to tell if she was lying or not. She didn't seem to be lying, but Mukuro had to wonder, what was so important about a fob watch? It's not like it contained her soul, or anything like that. It was just a watch.

"But what was your entry fee, Ikusaba?" Saikou questioned, turning back to face her partner.

Mukuro frowned a bit. What was her entry fee? Actually, the better question was what was she missing? Mukuro knew she was missing something, she just couldn't put her finger on it. After a bit more time thinking, Mukuro finally realized what she was missing.

"Despair." she said.

"What?" Saikou asked, confused.

"My entry fee, it's despair." she said.

"Uh, is 'despair' the name of your cat or something?" Saikou inquired. Mukuro shook her head no. "Why would that be your entry fee? It's not like despair is a good thing."

"It's uh, complicated..." Mukuro responded. Saikou nodded, clearly understanding that Mukuro didn't want her to pry.

"Well, I've cleaned my plate," Saikou said, standing up. "Ready to go?"

"Yeah." Mukuro replied, nodding.

"Leaving already?" Mr. Doi asked.

"'Fraid so," Saikou started, placing some yen on the counter, "keep the change."

Mr. Doi grinned. "Thanks, Saikou-san!" he exclaimed. "Come back soon!"

Saikou smiled, giving a wave back to the kind ramen shop owner. "Count on it!" she exclaimed, walking out the door with Mukuro.

Mukuro gave Mr. Doi a quick farewell before she exited. She shot a confused look to her partner. "Doesn't he know that you're dead?" she inquired.

"I honestly don't know," Saikou replied with a slight shrug, "if he does, he probably thinks that it's another Avaron Saikou that's dead. Unlike Maizono, I'm not exactly a celebrity."

Mukuro was about to reply when she felt a familiar prickling sensation on her skin. She was being followed by someone. She whirled around to see a familiar face.

"No..." she whispered.

"What is it, Ikusaba?" Saikou asked, turning around. Her eyes widened in shock. "Is… is that some new kind of Noise?"

"Noise?" a childish voice rose from the direction the two were looking in. "I'm not a Noise! I'm Monobear!"

**So, uh, hey guys. I completely forgot about updating this. '(-.-) Well, guess I should get back to this! So there's the explanation to why Mukuro isn't really enjoying all of this wonderful despair. I'll try to update again by the end of the month, but school is going on so I can't make any promises. Once again, thanks a lot to Makotot Naegi for editing this! And thanks for all the reviews and favorites, they really mean a lot to me and they're part of why I enjoy writing. Until next time, this is Ptroxsora, signing out.**


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